Star Citizen is the new game from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts

Star Citizen is the new game from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, and it's a PC-only space combat simulation title.

The game is to be crowd-funded through its official website and it has been in development at Robert's LA-based Cloud Imperium Games for the past year. A playable version will be available to backers in a year's time, but a full release is still a couple years's off.

Roberts’ re-entry into gaming comes after he spent more than a decade as a director and producer in the Hollywood film industry. In 1990, he introduced Wing Commander to the world of PC gaming and the franchise went on to sell millions of units and spawned multiple sequels, a feature film and another highly successful game franchise, Privateer.

“In recent years, game designers have stopped innovating and pushing the boundaries of what you can do in this genre,” said Roberts. “I plan on bringing that kind of development mentality back into PC gaming and space sims in particular.

“There is a lot of noise out there regarding social and mobile games right now, and I think PC gamers are feeling a little left out of the mix. But the PC is still incredibly capable of presenting an experience that doesn’t take a back seat to any other platform out there, including consoles. With my game, I want PC gamers to stand up, be counted and get excited again about all the great experiences their computer can deliver.”

Roberts said the team is seeking funding through crowd sourcing for "several reasons."

“For one, this route takes the traditional game publisher out of the mix and enables us to take the millions of dollars normally used by publishers for a triple-A title and plow them right back into developing the game," he said. "Secondly, using our own crowd funding mechanism allows us to reach out to our international fans, who have been devoted followers of my games in the past.

"Thirdly, going direct gets us much closer to our fans and allows us to focus more on the community side, create more updates for our fans and directly interact with them as we are making the game.”

Various sites have gone live with features and previews on the game. Here are some links:

RPS
Polygon
GI International
Shacknews

Star Citizen, still in early development stages, will not require a subscription, but will not be free-to-play either.

The game will be available for a one-time purchase, and while players will be able to play in the Star Citizen universe for free, there will also be virtual items available for purchase with in-game credits so players can customize their ships and other items.

Thanks, Blue.